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Drug use of New Mexico teens exceeds Chicago, Detroit

Las Crucen, 17, bucks trend, turns away from drug life to start anew

By Lindsey Anderson

landerson@lcsun-news.com l_m_anderson on Twitter

Posted:
07/30/2013 05:49:32 PM MDT

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Shari V. Hill/Sun-News
Xavier, 17, has had run-ins with the law since he was 14 and has used, sold and trafficked drugs. He has worn an ankle monitor for the past two years and is now cleaning up his act at Stepping Stones group home in Las Cruces.

Once a top student, the 17-year-old now sits on his bed at Stepping Stones, a community home in Las Cruces for teens with behavioral or substance abuse problems. A probation bracelet hugs his right ankle.

"I did a lot of dumb stuff," said Xavier, whose real name is not being used to shield him from potential criminal charges. "... Sometimes I'd use (my) intelligence to get away with stuff. I'd use it in a bad way instead of a good way."

He sits on his neatly made bed, a blue comforter, striped sheets and one white pillow spread across it. Dim mint green paint covers on the walls, and a towel hangs off the open door. He talks about his family problems -- which led him to drugs, which led to making thousands of dollars selling and trafficking, which led to trouble, which led to here -- and the other teens like him.

Teen drug use is not new. Nationwide, youth drug use rates have remained largely stagnant over the past decade, despite years of drug and alcohol education aimed at students.

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But New Mexico teens continue to use every drug measured by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- from marijuana to cocaine to heroin -- at higher rates than students nationwide. New Mexico teens use drugs at higher rates than even Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and other cities long considered the crime capitals of the United States, according to the CDC.

And in Doña Ana County, the availability of drugs on high school campuses has nearly doubled since 2001.

"You can get anything, anything anywhere," Xavier said.

Drugs and teens

Just under 46 percent of Doña Ana County high school students said they were offered, sold or given drugs on school property in 2011, according to the state health department's Youth and Resilience Survey. The number is the highest ever since the survey began in 2001, when 27 percent of students answered yes.

More than 18 percent of New Mexico teens say they first tried marijuana before they were 13 years old -- a rate nearly twice as high as the national average, 8.1 percent, according to the CDC.

New Mexico teens are also more likely to have used marijuana in the past month than their national counterparts -- 27.6 percent in the state, compared to 23.1 percent nationwide.

And more than 46 percent of Doña Ana County high school students said they had consumed alcohol in the last month.

Every public middle and high school in Las Cruces has an officer who analyzes school safety, acts as a deterrent, handles criminal behavior on campus and is a resource for students.

"As much as we try to intercept stuff, we can't control everything," Daines said, noting students aren't bringing kilograms of drugs to school but one joint. She estimates each of the four major high schools has a drug incident about once a week.

Louie Atencio, who works in intensive outpatient substance abuse with Families and Youth Inc. in Las Cruces, has seen a rise in teen substance use in his 23 years working with youth and drugs.

He estimates there has been as much as a 70 percent increase in the number of teens using marijuana, especially as the drug has been legalized for medical use in many states and personal use in Colorado and Oregon.

He has seen an increase in "multi-generational" marijuana use as parents and sometimes grandparents use with their children. About 20 percent of his clients follow that model, he said.

Though marijuana seems relatively harmless to some, the kids he sees often smoke four to eight joints a day, he said. They struggle with short-term memory and are failing their classes in school.

"They don't seem to have that clarity," he said.

After they've been clean for about a year, the students are earning A's and B's again.

"As soon as they stopped smoking ... all of the sudden, their motivation is where up there," Atencio said.

There were 191 drug-related arrests of youth under age 18 in 2012, according to Las Cruces police spokesman Dan Trujillo. They were overwhelmingly male, 150 of them.

The offenses ranged from the sale or manufacture of illegal substances to possession, and included synthetic and narcotic substances, opiates and cocaine. Most, however, were marijuana arrests.

Hoping to evade drug tests, Atencio said teens are increasingly using synthetic cannabis -- a legal substance sold as incense but used as a replacement for marijuana. Tests often don't detect the substance, known as spice or K2, making it a favorite -- though tests are evolving.

Students who use spice are often aggressive and "entrenched in their belief that everyone's out to get them," destroying relationships, Atencio said.

'Whole world bearing down'

Xavier was a straight-A student in elementary school. He tested at a 12th-grade level in sixth grade, he said.

He is the oldest of four children, whom he helped care for while his mother worked. His dad wasn't around growing up, and his stepfather, who is no longer a part of the family, was abusive, he said.

Middle school brought problems. Xavier got in with the wrong crowd, into gangs, which led to drugs which led to trouble, he said.

He sold and used marijuana and cocaine, though more selling than using. There was a stint trafficking the drugs as well.

He could make $1,200 for a pound of marijuana; three times as much for cocaine. Mix the cocaine with baking soda and he could make more.

"When I was that age, I thought it was a lot of money," he said.

He began receiving citations in middle school -- for weapons, fighting, petty theft -- and getting in trouble with the police.

He was kicked out of Picacho Middle School and transferred to Camino Real Middle School.

He was never home, only stopping by to grab something, always at his girlfriend's or friends' houses. He didn't like being home, where his stepdad was, he said.

In 2010, the family found out his mother has terminal cancer.

"I felt like the whole world was bearing down on my shoulders," he said. "I had to grow up really quick because I didn't have a dad and my mom was sooner or later going to leave us."

Escaping reality

Teenagers use drugs because they are bored or want to escape, counselors say.

"Drug use is staying the same because kids say they are bored," said Ruben Sanchez, the house leader of Stepping Stones. "... The more we embrace our youth, the less likely they are to use drugs."

Funding for local recreational centers and free sports leagues has decreased, so teens look for other ways to pass the time, Sanchez said.

"As we struggle in the economy, you see families struggling more and more with not being able to meet financial needs," Atencio said. "There are more and more kids trying to escape their own reality by using."

There's also another answer to the high rates of drug use in New Mexico, Atencio said: "We're so close to the border. It's right here. It's way available. In order for it to hit the eastern states, it's got to come through here."

Daines encouraged parents to talk with their children about drugs; there is only so much prevention schools can do, she said. The officers educate students as often as they can, and many schools offer the popular Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. But "ultimately, those kids go home," she said, noting many students say their parents don't care what they do.

"We have to acknowledge the fact that our kids are exposed to drugs and communicate with them," she said. "... We can't bury our heads in the sand and say it's not happening."

Xavier did drugs and drank mainly because he wanted to escape, like most kids, he said.

"They want to try something new. They want to escape," he said.

His mom would randomly drug test him sometimes, but he always managed to outsmart her.

He turned to Spice when he was on probation as early drug tests couldn't detect it. But then he overdosed, seizing and hallucinating.

Hi mom threw him in a cold shower and took him to the hospital.

"Ever since then, I tell my brother and other friends to stay away from it," he said. "It's just not good. ... After that, ... I never used drugs again."

'I worry every day'

Xavier's mom's diagnosis -- terminal ovarian, cervical and uterine cancer -- brought a 180-degree change in Xavier's behavior, he said. But not a full 360, not yet.

He was arrested in a high-profile destruction of public property incident in Las Cruces, one he said was an accident. He took the fall to protect his younger brother, he said.

When he first came to Stepping Stones, he got in trouble for not charging his bracelet, talking back; now he's been "blue ribbon" or top-notch behavior.

But he worries his 1-year-old son will follow his path.

"I worry that every day," he said. "There's an old saying that your kids will be a lot worse than you. So I worry every day."

In some ways he's thankful he got caught, he said, "because it opened my eyes."

By completing Stepping Stones and a Border Patrol for at-risk youth, he'll have a clean record when he turns 18.

He is two classes away from earning his high school diploma, just repeating failed P.E. and freshman algebra classes to go.

He received a scholarship to study automotive and performance duty at Western Technical College in El Paso, and will learn how to make engines faster and upgrade cars.

He aims to leave Stepping Stones in December.

"I want to get it done by this year so next year will be a whole new year," he said. "It feels good to be clean and sober, but it also feels a lot better to be clean, sober and free."